April 2016 Persecution Magazine (3 of 5)

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APRIL 2016

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ALIVE!

Remembering Those We’ve Lost ICC marks the anniversaries of some special martyrs

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“OUR EYE IS

TO GOD” Despite the passage of time, the families of the 33 Ethiopian martyrs struggle to cope with the loss of their loved ones

By Emma Lane

I

In Ethiopia, time has not healed all wounds for the surviving family members of the 33 Eritrean and Ethiopian martyrs who were killed one year ago by ISIS. In the United States, when a family undergoes the loss of their breadwinner, the surviving family has several options: return to school, seek another job, or simply start a small business. In Ethiopia, none of these options were viable solutions for the surviving family members of the 33 martyrs that died at the hands of ISIS in Libya in April 2015.

ICC’s Regional Manager for Africa, Troy Augustine, wrote previously about two of the Ethiopian victims when their

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story was first publicized just months after their public murder in Libya: Eyasu Yekuneamlak and Balcha Belete were best friends growing up in the impoverished Cherkos neighborhood of Ethiopia’s capital city, Addis Ababa. At age 31, Yekuneamlak was responsible for caring and providing for his weak and destitute mother.

As the youngest in the family, he was tasked with covering his mother’s expenses, a tradition most Ethiopians hold.

Since his mother was unable to work for herself, Yekuneamlak [was] the main breadwinner for the family.

Financial stress forced [them both] out of Ethiopia to seek better employment abroad [which is how they ended up kidnapped

by ISIS in Libya]. Both men died

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APRIL 2016

Top Left Troy Augustine, ICC’s Regional Manager for Africa, purchased this plate from the widow of one of the beheaded Ethiopian martyrs.

Her husband, one of the 33 martyrs, was responsible for the beautiful calligraphy.

Bottom Left

Mothers of the 33 beheaded Ethiopian martyrs meeting with ICC to share the stories of their sons’ lives before they were brutally taken by ISIS in April of last year

“Christians should treat people as God’s children wherever they happen to live and work, allowing everyone equal opportunities for acquiring skills and living a life of dignity.”

– DANIEL THOMPSON, EXPERT IN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN THE HORN OF AFRICA

refusing to deny Christ.

They were shot execution style in the head from point-blank range somewhere in Libya.

Ethiopia is Africa’s second most-populated country, with approximately two-thirds of its citizens professing Christianity.

With limited economic choice, family breadwinners like Eyasu and Balcha often travel to Libya or Europe in search of employment to support their families back home.

With their financial providers gone, the families of these brave Christ-followers are undergoing immense financial hardship in addition to the devastating grief they still feel from the tragedy.

Unfortunately, these

surviving family members do not have the financial resources to provide for their families, much less learn a new vocational skill.

Without their breadwinner to provide necessities, they have little hope of caring for their children without outside assistance.

That’s when ICC stepped in. Six months after the news of the 33 martyrs hit, Troy Augustine, ICC’s Regional Manager for Africa, traveled to Ethiopia to meet with these families and deliver food packages door to door for those affected by the martyrs’ deaths in Libya.

The food packages came as a complete shock to the families of the martyrs who felt left behind by the inter-

national community.

Troy sensed immeasurable gratitude from the family members of the martyrs. “We thought everyone forgot about us,” noted Burtukan, widow of a martyr and mother of two.

She discussed how people rallied around the families of the Ethiopian martyrs immediately following their deaths, but within a few months, the moral support had become a distant whisper that was never followed up with action to help sustain her family.

Several months later, ICC delivered Christmas gifts to the children of the martyrs by bringing toys door to door.

While the needs of these families are great, ICC has provided them

hope. Working with our regional staff in Africa, ICC discussed possible solutions for long-term economic sustainability in their villages to provide continual and selfsustaining assistance to these families.

Over the past several months, ICC’s Africa team has been working on a process for developing plans to create a viable market that will provide long term stability in Ethiopia so that the families of these 33 brave martyrs will never again feel forgotten by their brothers and sisters in Christ.

Our prayer is that they may find peace through economic stability in their community to aid and restore the Christians affected by martyrdom on a long term basis.

Ethiopia remembers its Christian martyrs with a billboard in the streets of Addis Ababa.

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HUNDRED GIRLS

ABDUCTED

D

W

hat do you say to console a grieving father whose daughter was kidnapped and sold as a sex slave as he lives day-to-day not knowing if she’s alive or dead?

Yaga Lawan, the father of one of Nigeria’s infamous Chibok girls from northeastern Nigeria, lives a tortured existence and his pain is evident through his vacant, glaring eyes.

Two Christmases, two birthdays, two Easters, indeed, two full years have passed since the last time Lawan saw his precious beloved teenage daughter, Naomi.

“I would rather know she was dead than live like this,” he told ICC. “People die, but no one should have to experience this.”

Naomi and nearly 300 of her fellow high school classmates awoke abruptly in the late evening of April 14, 2014, jarred by crazed exclamations of “God is Great” (Allahu Akbar) as jihadists went from dorm to dorm to abduct the Christian girls and drag them down to the hell of a new life of unimaginable horror.

This month we mark the two year anniversary these horrific events.

Remembering Chibok

Though the kidnapping of more than 200 Nigerian girls captured the world’s attention for a time, two years later, their families still struggle to go on, wondering if their daughters are dead or alive.

By Troy Augustine

for 6,664 deaths in Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon in 2015. They were the world’s deadliest terror threat last year.

However, the reality on the ground tells an even more grisly story of persecution faced by the Church of Jesus Christ. Christian survivors speak of militants specifically targeting their homes, destroying and looting, their churches, and stealing their children.

This holds true in the Chibok incident. The majority of the 279 girls initially taken were Christians, mostly from the Nigerian Brethren (EYN) denomination.

The kidnapping garnered global attention surrounding the Twitter hashtag #BringBackOurGirls; re-tweeted one millionplus times in the first two weeks following the event. Even U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama posted a photo of herself to social media holding a sign displaying the hashtag.

Two years later, at least 219 remain missing, and confusion swirls around whether or not they will ever be rescued. Within days of the abduction, Boko Haram’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, promised to sell them into slavery.

“Allah instructed me to sell them: they are his properties,” he declared in a YouTube video. “I will sell them in the market by Allah.” Naomi and her friends are likely dispersed across the region.

In their quest to establish a radical Islamic caliphate in West Africa, Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram has ravaged northern Nigeria in a near seven-year insurgency in which Christians have faced the brunt of their fury.

The movement has recently morphed into a slithery, unpredictable, guerilla-style insurgency, waging mostly suicide bombing attacks on population clusters such as displacement camps, markets, churches, and even moderate mosques. Amnesty – ABUBAKAR SHEKAU, BOKO HARAM LEADER International credited Boko Haram with responsibility

“Allah instructed me to sell them: they are his properties. I will sell them in the market

by Allah.”

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The Politics of Rescue Nigerian politicians have long declared and broken their promises to bring back our girls.

Nigeria’s former president, Goodluck Jonathan, once declared his confidence in the belief that the girls would be rescued by the end of his term in office.

Current President Muhammadu Buhari was elected in 2015 on promises that he would quickly

defeat Boko Haram and bring back the Chibok girls.

On Christmas Eve 2015, Buhari comically declared that the terrorists were “technically defeated.,” His comments stood as an excmation to the long line of lies from politicans in relation to Boko Haram.

In February, former President Olusegun Obasanjo also weighed in on the subject.

“If any leader is promising to bring back the Chibok girls now, he is lying,” Obasanjo told Nigerian media.

From time to time, suspicious reports surface about a supposed Boko Haram commander who claims to know the girls’ whereabouts and flouts his willingness to negotiate for their release.

In the meantime, Yaga Lawan, and too many thousands of other loved ones of victims live a tortured existence hoping for resolution or justice.

Endless Tears

The stress is so extreme on these parents that the number of them who have died or suffered heart attacks in the past two years has climbed to double digits, according to reports.

The everyday memory of April 2014 creates a torturous suspension of regular life for parents who cannot compartamentalize or forget.

While the world can respond with a helpful retweet or a passing prayer, Yaga Lawan and his family struggle mightily. His wife lacks the energy to even pull the hoe on their Chibok-area farm in order to complete daily chores. Just one example of the after-effects of persecution in a corner of the world where the heat on the Church is hotter than anywhere else.

All this reminds me of a a Pakistani proverb: “When I heard of your suffering, I forgot my own.”

As the Bible calls us to bear burdens with others, two years later, the Church stands with Yaga Lawan. We will weep with you as you weep, and we will stand ready to rejoice with you as you rejoice, Lord willing.

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Garissa University: In the S

A solitary desk left outside on the campus of Garissa University acts as a symbol of the 148 fallen students.

On April 2, 2015, 148 Garissa University students, faculty and guards lost their lives in a terror attack that targeted Christians.

The university’s dean leads ICC through the path of the gunmen.

By Jeremiah Castelo

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T

he absence of students in these halls may be due to their weekly scheduled day of prayer, but the emptiness in the atmosphere of the entire campus is a result of something else altogether.

It’s been one year since al-Shabaab gunmen ravaged the campus of Garissa University, yet the memory is not easily forgotten as bullet holes still remain in some of the walls.

Since the attack, security at Garissa University has increased significantly. Kenyan Defense Force (KDF) checkpoints are now stationed along all major

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roads leading to the school, the front gate is guarded by armed soldiers and campus security has implemented identification procedures at all of the entrance and exit points.

The Pathway of the Gunmen The Dean of Students, a tall, Somali Muslim man, recounted the events of the attack and led ICC on the exact route the attackers took. A long, cracked cement pathway directed us toward the prayer room where the first 12 students were killed.

The setting seemed untouched since the attack, as all of the chairs were still thrust to one side of the room, and a pool of dried blood still stained one corner of APRIL 2016

e Steps of the Gunmen the floor.

The pathway continued toward the first dormitory, where the majority of the students were killed. One hundred and twentythree lives were taken in the now gated building. The second dorm, where five more students were killed, was also gated and locked.

Five guards and three faculty members were also killed, leading to a death toll of 148.

RECCE Company, Kenya’s highly trained counter-terrorism unit based in Nairobi, approximately six hours away, arrived in Garissa at 4:00 p.m. The alShabaab threat was neutralized in 15 minutes. Out of the five gunmen, four were killed and one was detained. One RECCE soldier was killed by a suicide bomb.

The heavy burden that the CEO still carries is evident in his facial expressions, his tone of voice and his body language. Though a few of the students who survived the attack have returned to school, many have not. Despite the scars that the staff and students at the university still carry, the campus still strives to be a harmonious place of education for both Christians and Muslims alike.

“I think about it every night before I go to sleep. If I only had a gun, I could’ve done something!”

A Beacon of Light

.

– GARISSA UNIVERSITY CEO

Bearing the Burden

In the office of the CEO of the university, we heard the testimony of the man whose burden weighs the heaviest.

“I think about it every night before I go to sleep,” he told ICC as he stared blankly at the wall.

“If I only had a gun, I could’ve done something!”

Without notes, he detailed every event, beginning with the first gunshot heard all the way down to the last.

Bullets started firing at 5:45 a.m. Though KDF soldiers had been notified immediately, they didn’t engage the gunmen in combat. Instead, they formed a perimeter around the campus at 6:00 a.m. and remained there until late into the afternoon. With the gunmen, students and staff trapped within the campus grounds, KDF soldiers told faculty to remain inside until more appropriately trained anti-terror units arrived.

A long, cracked cement pathway directed us toward the prayer room where the first 12 students were killed.

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With a greater than 90 percent Muslim population, the town of Garissa is a place where Christians are not only an easy target for Muslim extremists, but are often persecuted as a minority. Many Christian women are often victims of workplace violence and rape, due to the social exclusion created by their underprivileged position.

Despite the difficult odds, many of the Christians in town continue to serve the community through spiritual, educational and charitable means. In many public institutions, such as schools, Christians and Muslims are able to live in harmony despite their theological differences. These settings are often used as indirect evangelical platforms, first by being good neighbors, then by showing the love of Christ and openly speaking the Gospel. The events at Garissa University represent a prime example of what living for Christ looks like, especially when persecuted for His name’s sake.

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